


An annoyance

by Kumoe



Category: Crash Bandicoot (Video Games)
Genre: Blood, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, demon/priest AU, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27705307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kumoe/pseuds/Kumoe
Summary: Demon/Priest AU with demon Cortex and Priest N.Tropy, what happens when a demon isn't good at its job and a priest is already corrupted to the core.Cortex has to convince N.Tropy to help him corrupt the church but will it work ?
Relationships: Neo Cortex/Nefarious Tropy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

After the door closed and the slam of this one echoed into the church, N.Tropy let out a sigh, resting his hand on the large counter where candles were lit. He didn't bother to turn around before speaking. "Show yourself, I know you're here. Only a fool wouldn't notice your obnoxious presence between these walls." 

The small creature appeared, in a red smoke out of thin air behind the priest. Here he was flying above the floor approximatively at the same height as the man of God, he grinned, letting his sharp fangs be shown. With a really confident voice he asked. "Since when did you notice me ?" He was curious to know. 

N.Tropy turned around to look at what kind of evil creature he was facing. At his big surprise the flying demon wasn't what he had expected at all, the size, the look, the--everything, he was small, not intimidating at all and, who ever wears yellow gloves over a suit ?  
He blinked before composing himself. "Since the first day." By that at least a week had passed since the first day Cortex was spying on him. You could hear a smothered laugh in his voice as he talked but it wasn't well hidden with his expression. 

Cortex frowned, his grin disappearing quite fast. Not only because of what he just said but also because of how the priest said it. The demon swears he could feel a drop of sweat going down his face. He needed to absolutely keep his façade until this church had been corrupted like asked by his superior. He needed to show anger and how threatening he could be as long as he had strong powers.  
"DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME !" He yelled and approached the priest, all the candles in the whole church turned off as if there was a strong wind that blew on them. And a sudden noise of broken glass could be heard as two of the nearest stained glass were cracked and pieces of both fell on the church's floor. 

N.Tropy took a step back by reflex stumbling into the counter behind him. He suddenly wasn't so cocky about the little demon.. For sure this thing was evil and certainly more powerful and dangerous than he looked.. "..." Now Tropy was the one who almost had a sweat down his face, he tried to stay composed and frowned a bit. "Fine, fine, I won't. So tell me, Mr.Demon, why are you here exactly, taking over the church ?" 

"The name is Neo Cortex, and isn't it obvious ?" He answered now calmed down and took some distance from N.Tropy. 

"It is actually, but why ? Why this church in particular, if I may ask." He tried to stay as polite as he could, not wanting to anger the demon, he didn't know to what extent he could be dangerous. 

"Because their priest is already corrupted !" He answered in a joyful tone. "I've seen you act, all "faithful" and "loyal" and "loving" and "reliable"--BULLSHIT. You're nothing but a hypocrite, a thief and liar, but that's what makes you interesting." He passed his hand over his beard. "I've seen you steal, lie, do everything you swore as a priest you wouldn't do but here you are, being a naughty soul." He said teasing. 

"...." Everything he accused him of doing were true, and thought he must have brought this demon to him because of his behavior, could he only blame himself then ? The priest thought for a moment before answering. "You clearly want my help to do that, i know i'm not the most faithful priest of all but still, why wanting this church ? And why can't you take it over right now ? Aren't you powerful ? Unless you're not." 

Cortex began to be nervous with the amount of questions the priest was asking. "It's just my job-- I am powerful but i'm not exactly from the mortal realm, which makes things harder and having a little help from a mortal is easier than doing the job alone--." 

N.tropy has been careful until now with this creature because he saw what he was capable of but now doubts came to his mind and he raised an eyebrow. "Wait, "job" ? What do you mean by job ?" 

"Umh.. Well it's what i'm supposed to do." 

"Like a duty ?" 

"Yes..?" Cortex seemed horribly confused. 

"Which means you have superiors and authority above you, you're not an independent being." 

"So what ?? What does it have to do with anything ??" He asked, as confusion could be read on his face but irritation could be heard in the tone of his voice. 

"What happens if you fail at your job ?" He asked with a slight grin. 

"It doesn't matter because I won't--!" He frowned and began to get more irritated. 

"Not if I refuse to help you, which may be a possibility you never calculated." He answered. It was risky to say that especially with a being like Cortex. Demons could be dangerous especially since other ancient priests from this church encountered some of them, years ago. N.Tropy's been taught how to get rid of them in theory and heard many stories about them, it sure was his first time seeing one, but he had a feeling that.. even if Cortex shown himself intimidating just before, he was talking too much to be somehow a real evil being. Evil beings don't talk, they act, they make people scared and destroy. Cortex was... really chatty and polite for that matter, which made N.Tropy doubt on his capability to be as dangerous as he wanted him to believe.

"Well I---" He shut himself for a brief moment, it seemed like N.Tropy wasn't scared of him even after the demonstration of his power and.. it was a problem. He was hesitant with his next sentence as it came out. "If you don't, I'll fucking kill you--!" He tried to sound as intimidating as earlier but it was really less convincing than before.

"Then kill me." The priest's self confidence came back and dared Cortex to do something to him, anything. He wanted to know if the creature had guts. It sure wasn't the brightest move the priest have done, but he trusted his feelings.

Cortex blinked in surprise then his face changed into a deep frown. "Well--I-- I won't exactly do that right now, how do i corrupt a church without a satanic priest !?" This conversation was going nowhere and Cortex was slowly running out of patience.

"Ah ! I knew it, you don't have the guts." N.Tropy said it with a grin on his face. He was right that demon was all talk no action and a lot of acting on top of it.

" I have ! It would just fuck up my plan !" He yelled with irritation.

"Then why wanting to kill me in the first place ? Beside there's other priests around, why would I be an exception, you're just a pathetic excuse for a demon." He pointed out and this comment made Cortex turn more red than yellow on his skin and slight smoke was coming from his body.

"They're fucking saints !! YOU should have been the EASIEST TO CONVINCE but apparently i was wrong !"

"But if you were efficient you would have already killed me and tried with another priest, you're not very brillant are you." N.Tropy had a calm voice which was sickening for Cortex while insulting him like this.

"You know what ! I WILL fucking KILL YOU, when you expect it LESS, i'll make your everyday life a fucking NIGHTMARE ! It will be SLOW AND PAINFUL ! I'LL DO IT, JUST WAIT FOR IT ! Fuck you, fuck your job and fuck your church !" As he yelled, multiple stained glass ended up broken, the main door opened in a loud slam as Cortex flew away in a gesture and disappeared in a red smoke, leaving the whole place being quiet as ever.

N.Tropy stood still as the demon left him alone.. he pinched his nose, he was so fucking dumb, his pride let him get the best of him and this time he could only blame himself for the situation he was in.. but he thought, maybe this demon was just a 100% all talk.. yes that must be it. He didn't even hurt him at all, so certainly he wouldn't do anything. As he was gone, N.Tropy went back at what he was doing and would need to call someone about the stained glass. He didn't know how he would explain the accident and if he would even talk about this demon at all.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day arrived and for N.Tropy, this day has been a real nightmare. He didn't tell anyone about the demon that showed up into the church and invented a poor excuse about the stained glass that seemed plausible, so no one really asked anything. But today, the nuns were worried about N.Tropy, they thought he may be cursed or having really bad luck because he could have died multiple time already. As they cleaned the stained glass earlier that day and led a hand for it, one stained glass that wasn't completely broken fell right above his head but was saved by one of the nun who pushed him away. When he lit all the candles for a ceremony his robe caught fire and someone quickly put some holy water to put out the fire. They prayed in front of a giant cross that was at the back of the church, the cross almost crushed N.Tropy if a nun wasn't there, after those 3 incidents the nun insisted for N.Tropy to go get some rest and prayed for him to get good fortune and be protected by the force from above.   
But once there was no one around, as N.Tropy insisted on staying and told them he was sure everything would be fine, other incidents happened. If he touched some woods of any kind, table, bench and more.. he would get splinters, fortunately for him he was wearing gloves, but it would still go through sometimes. The food he would eat would have the taste of something rotten, everything that happened around him was far from being some normal bad luck that everyone would get time to time, it was pure dark margic. At the end of the day as he was alone in the church and almost exhausted, he looked around the silent church and spoke up. 

"I KNOW you're here, you've been here all day, if you think you're scaring me you're wrong !" He said in a confident tone, N.Tropy wasn't scared, but more annoyed and angry. "And if you think I'll change my mind about helping you, maybe you're right." He said calmly, raising an eyebrow still alert about his surrounding. 

The demon appeared behind him in a red smoke, he was leaning on the side as if he was lying on an invisible floor in the air.  
"What's the matter ? Having little accidents ?" He said with a satisfied and mocking voice. 

The man of God turned around to face him, he was holding a cross in his left hand that was way bigger than the rosary he had around his neck. "It seems like someone is trying to kill me but isn't really "good" at it." He insisted on the good to hurt Cortex's feelings, at least trying to, since he passed a shitty day because of him. 

"Whatever, you changed your mind, so it worked." He said with a smile like a cat, he was genuinely satisfied.

N.tropy squinted his eyes looking at him with hatred, he moved fast trying to shove the cross into Cortex's face but this one dissapeared in a red smoke to appear around N.Tropy. 

"Pffffttt---HAHAHAHAH--!! What did you try to do there pal ? Ban me with your cross, you can't touch me, but i can." He went closer pinching N.Tropy's cheek, this one reacted trying to punch the other but he disappeared by reflex and floated a bit away from the priest with a smile on his face. "You tried to trick me but i guess you're still not ready to help me."

N.tropy clenched his teeth in anger, frowning. "How'd you guess." It was a retorical question, he took a deep breath and calmed himself a bit. "You're a real piece of shit you know that." 

"Oh and it's only the begining trust me. You'd want to change your mind quickly, i advise you." Cortex answered politely with a shitty grin on his face.

N.Tropy was mad, mad at the demon but also at himself. 'Guess i'll have to endure this until i find a way to get rid of him for good.' Was what he thought. Now his plan was to become so holy that at the slightest touch that demon suffer in agony for eternity. He was ready to give up all his unfaithful traits just to get rid of that yellow demon.

"If you change your mind, just call me~" He almost purred as he disappeared in thin air letting the priest alone again in the church.

Accidents almost killing N.Tropy happened everyday, it went like this for a whole week until the dynamic suddenly change, at the begining of the second week the "accidents" that occured in the priest's everyday life from now were less and less important, it was only small things that happened, nothing was trying to fall on his head, to cut him on half, to stab him, everything was small details, the food was still rotten sometimes, the objects on tables would fall of them, but nothing remotely deadly or really "bad" happened. N.Tropy thought it may be because of his now good behavior. He became less and less angry, he even felt kind of satisfied that his changes had results. Until the end of the second week where he was alone Cortex appeared near him, still floating but he seemed somehow anxious. 

"Come on !!-- You can't ignore me for all eternity !" He sounded almost annoyed and desesperate. "Can't you change your mind !" 

"I can, and no I won't." He simply replied ignoring him while doing his task and turning his back to the demon.

Cortex dared to put a hand on his shoulder. "Can you at least look at m---" He took off his hand as quickly as possible and even through the gloves he could feel pain, some light smoke was coming out of it. "OH MY FUCK-- what did you DO ?!" He was shocked at what has just happened and groaned in pain. "Bath in Holy water ?!" He frowned as he yelled at him while holding his wrist in one hand.

"Not exactly, washing my clothes in it, maybe." He shrugged and turned his head in the demon's direction to smirk at him. "I must be inventive for the likes of you." 

Cortex's frown fadded slowly looking at his own hand, he looked worried and nervous, because he was. Before speaking there was a long silence. He frowned for a moment closing his eyes then his face relaxed and let a sigh of defeat coming out. "Can't we find.. an arrangement--?" He then looked at N.Tropy with droopy eyebrows, he was asking the question with a small voice.

N.Tropy was genuinely surprised at the reaction, he thought he would become furious like previously, not like this.. 'urh, don't look at me like that' was what he thought. He didn't know why but he had a small pinch in his heart. "I made up my mind, I told you, the answer is no." 

Cortex looked aside. "-- I--can-- maybe offer you something in exchange--" He looked down for a moment before trying to look at N.Tropy but his gaze was fleeing the priest's. "Anything you'd like, umh-- money ? I can give you that, I-- don't know-- I can give you-- power over mortals--! A soulmate--! Anything--" Cortex's façade was breaking, his assured and manipulative acting was no more. But why his façade suddenly broke was a mystery to N.Tropy. 

The priest blinked, it felt like Cortex was almost begging him for accepting his offer. What was this demon doing ? Didn't he have powers ? Now N.Tropy almost fell kind of guilty about burning the creature, he ignored why, maybe he had some pity for the demon. He will hate himself later for his next action. He took off his black gloves put them aside and grabbed Cortex's arm where his hand was hurt. 

"HEY--! Let me go--!" He tried to flee by changing into smoke as per usual but it didn't work this time, he almost turned into red smoke, this one showing a little but he couldn't go away. "Shit--! Let me GO--!" He used his other hand to try to make N.Tropy loose his grip on him.

"Uh--" The priest's eyes widened. "Why can't you disappear ??" He asked, did he become weaker or did the holy water do something ? 

"Please-- Let me go--!" He begged as he tried to still make the priest loose his grip by flapping his wings harder but it didn't work at all. 

"Not until you explain to me why you can't run away like usual." He said calmly watching the demon panic, it was like he caught an injured small animal. 

"Well it's--" He stopped pulling with his wings and nervously looked at the ground. "--the more I stay in the mortal realm the less power I have unless there is a place I can rest and regain energy from--- but this church became fullfilled with holy energy since you stopped doing bad deeds-- you stopped stealing-- lying-- just to get rid of me and I know that--!" He felt so bad telling him all this, he didn't want N.Tropy to know how weak of a demon he was, because he couldn't convince N.Tropy fast enough before his power slowly fade away. Demons powers were borrowed from the underworld, they needed to have a connection with an evil environement in order to survive in the mortal realm, without this, a demon will suffer from missing the connection to the underworld. 

"I get it now." Everything was clear. He didn't know why but guilt was rising up within him for some reasons. "What happen if you fail at your job ?" He said in a concerned tone, he still had some questions before letting him go.

Cortex really wanted to leave right now, but maybe if he explained everything N.Tropy would finally accept--! "If I fail--- it's back to Hell with eternal suffering-- I was assigned at this job-- I never asked to do this-- neither I asked to be a demon--! Now PLEASE--Let me go--" 

N.Tropy let him go. And now that the demon was free, he flew at least two meters away from the priest. He rubbed his arm, making small noises of complaint to the slight pain from the grip and mostly the one from his hand and looked at the priest with still those droopy eyebrows, waiting for what he would say now. 

"Alright-- don't think I will accept anything from you even knowing your situation. I don't even know if something will happen to my soul if i ever accept to help you." He answered, there may be a catch to corruption, he didn't want to become a demon himself, never will he end up at Cortex's place, there was no way.

"Nothing will happen to your soul-- I promise." He tried to sound confident about that but his voice was small and cracking because of the pain. 

"What makes me sure you're not lying ?" He asked not really convinced. 

"I'm in no position to lie honestly--! I--" He cut himself, closing his eyes in pain as he took of the gloves of his injured hand to see the damage caused by the holy water. Blood was dripping on the church's floor, as it touched it a light 'psshh' sound, followed by smoke from the drops on the floor could be heard and seen. His hand was covered in blisters and burnt skin, the blisters who didn't split open were filled with blood, it was kind of disgusting looking to say the least and painful. "It's as painful as it look..."

N.Tropy's guilt grew bigger, he would hate to say it but he felt a bit sorry, because it was entirely his fault for causing this.. "I ignored holy water could do such damage to demons." He looked around, and slowly left the main aisle. "Wait for me, i'll be right back." He said as he left Cortex alone. 

"Umh-- alright-" He wasn't sure why the priest was gone but he waited quietly. 

A few minutes later N.Tropy came back with a first aid kit, he didn't even ask Cortex to give him his hand that he grabbed it and began to apply cotton and wrapping it into gauze. 

"Uh--why do you--?!" Cortex was confused as why the fuck that priest was taking care of him all of a sudden. 

N.Tropy cut him out. "Shut up ! And just be quiet." He snapped, not wanting any comment on why he was doing it. He didn't even know himself.

"..." Cortex frowned mimicking N.Tropy's sentence in silence and in a mocking way, like a 'blah blah blah' type of mimick. 

"It's not because I'm looking at your hand that I don't see your FACE." He tightened the gauze a bit too much as he got frustrated by the demon. 

"Ouch--!" He stopped and closed his eyes in pain. 

"Here, all done." He cut the gauze and let the demon's hand go. 

"Th---anks." He had some trouble letting the thanks out of his mouth, he wasn't used to thank anyone ever. 

"Now, about your job. I'll reconsider your offer, I need to think about it for a while." He said as he put everything back in the first aid kit.

"Really ?!" His eyes widened and his voice was almost joyful. His chest felt a bit lighter as there was hope to succeed at his job ! Maybe !

"Don't be excited too quickly, i never said i accepted yet. Also, I want you to STOP using your power on me, if i get one more meal with a rotten taste I swear to God I will grab you and drown you in a basin full of holy water !" 

"Y-yes ! Promised !" He noddedn still having droopy eyebrows, he couldn't help himself but to smile at the good new thought. 

"..." N.Tropy looked at him in silence. 

"Well-- call me when you have an answer, but please don't take too long-- the mortal realm is tiring--." Was about to leave, flying to the door and stopped. "Could you open the door for me ?" 

"Can't you open it ?" 

"My powers are getting weaker and i can't touch this church, it'll burn like a million degree if I do--" He explained. 

"..." N.Tropy nodded. 'So that's why he's been floating the whole time. Never encountered such a pathetic creature before.' He thought to himself as he opened the main door, the little demon went through and disappeared in the dark of the night letting N.Tropy alone again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to iggy for helping me a bit on some ideas !! Love you !   
> Also i hope you enjoyed this chapter I think chapter 3 will be the end of it !

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy it, i'm a not a native english speaker so be comprehensive ;v; idk when i will post chapter 2, i hope it soon thanks for reading love you !


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